The Killer eBook

At the crack of the Springfield he lurched forward
and toppled slowly out of sight over the edge of the
cliff. The two I had been stalking instantly
disappeared. But on the very top of the butte
opposite appeared another. It was a very long
shot,[F] but I had to take chances, for I could not
tell whether or not the one I had just shot was accessible
or not. On a guess I held six inches over his
back. The goat gave one leap forward into space.
For twenty feet he fell spread-eagled and right side
up as though flying. Then he began to turn and
whirl. As far as my personal testimony could
go, he is falling yet through that dizzy blue abyss.

“Good-bye, billy,” said I, sadly.
It looked then as though I had lost both.

I worked my way down the face of the Citadel until
I was just above the steep snow fields. Here
was a drop of six feet. If the snow was soft,
all right. If it was frozen underneath, I would
be very likely to toboggan off into space. I
pried loose a small rock and dropped it, watching
with great interest how it lit. It sunk with a
dull plunk. Therefore I made my leap, and found
myself waist deep in feathery snow.

With what anxiety I peered over the edge of that precipice
the reader can guess. Thirty feet below was a
four-foot ledge. On the edge of that ledge grew
two stunted pines about three feet in height—­and
only two. Against those pines my goat had lodged!
In my exultation I straightened up and uttered a whoop.
To my surprise it was answered from behind me.
Frank had followed my trail. He had killed a nanny
and was carrying the head. Everybody had goats!

After a great deal of man[oe]uvring we worked our
way down to the ledge by means of a crevice and a
ten-foot pole. Then we tied the goat to the little
trees, and set to work. I held Frank while he
skinned; and then he held me while I skinned.
It was very awkward. The tiny landscape almost
directly beneath us was blue with the atmosphere of
distance. A solitary raven discovered us, and
began to circle and croak and flop.

“You’ll get your meal later,” we
told him.

Far below us, like suspended leaves swirling in a
wind, a dense flock of snowbirds fluttered.

We got on well enough until it became necessary to
sever the backbone. Then, try as we would, we
could not in the general awkwardness reach a joint
with a knife. At last we had a bright idea.
I held the head back while Frank shot the vertebrae
in two with his rifle!

Then we loosed the cords that held the body.
It fell six hundred feet, hit a ledge, bounded out,
and so disappeared toward the hazy blue map below.
The raven folded his wings and dropped like a plummet,
with a strange rushing sound. We watched him
until the increasing speed of his swoop turned us
a little dizzy, and we drew back. When we looked
a moment later he had disappeared into the distance—­straight
down!

Now we had to win our way out. The trophy we
tied with a rope. I climbed up the pole, and
along the crevice as far as the rope would let me,
hauled up the trophy, jammed my feet and back against
both sides of the “chimney.” Frank
then clambered past me; and so repeat.